IN BUENOS AIRES, THE MUSICAL SCENE IS THE RICHEST IN THE THIRD; WORLD

When the New York Philharmonic Orchestra opens a weeklong engagement in this Southern Hemisphere capital Monday, it will be playing in a city that is widely accepted to have the richest classical music and opera scene in the third world.

There is music everywhere - in dozens of conservatories, on small backstreet stages, in homes and coffeeshops, and in the opulent Colon Theater, one of the leading opera houses in the world.

Though this country's image abroad has been dominated by jackbooted soldiers, comic-opera governments and war, Argentina has also all along been feeding the world an inordinate number of top musicians. Among them are Daniel Barenboim, Marta Argerich, Bruno Gelber and scores of soloists, concertmasters and members of leading orchestras in Europe and the United States, including the Philharmonic.

The sophistication of the Argentine music scene is a tragic reminder that this country of abundant natural resources and an educated population of only 28 million people has no real business being in the third world - but that is another story of economic mismanagement and political upheavals. A Nation of Immigrants

Italians, not Spaniards, are the largest ethnic group. Raquel Aguirre de Castro, wife of the late Argentine composer and director Juan Jose Castro, and one of the grand dames of Argentine music, said, ''As soon as the Italians get a little money, they build a concert hall.''

The greatest achievement was the Colon. Built in 1908, it drips with red velvet and chandeliers. Its seats are hand carved and wide, its balconies elegant and its acoustics so rich that the S.R.O.'s in the fifth balcony, beneath painted oils by Raul Soldi, are said to be able to hear a diva's tear drop. The halls and the enthusiastic audiences that fill them attracted the leading European artists by the turn of the century. One aid was that the Northern Hemisphere's summer off season is winter in Argentina, and as travel by boat was slow in those days, they would come to spend the entire season.

It was in Buenos Aires that Nijinsky fatally married, for example, and it was in Buenos Aires that Toscanini summered with the La Scala opera company between 1908 and roughly 1920. That proved to be decisive, because many of the singers and musicians in the troupe eventually stayed and helped to build the country's indigenous music talent. An International Arts Stop

The airplane eliminated the long summers, but Argentina is still a regular stop for musicians and opera singers. In the last year, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Paris Orchestra, Jean Pierre Rampal, Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti - the list goes on of the famous and not so famous who came to Buenos Aires on tour.

''One reason people like to play here,'' Lorin Maazel, director of the Cleveland Orchestra, said in an interview last year, ''is that the Argentine audiences are musically very intelligent.''

Today, Buenos Aires has three professional orchestras and one youth group of its own. All are financed by the city or national government, including the Permanent Orchestra of the Colon, which is considered the best and has been led by such visiting directors as Karl Bohm and Herbert von Karajan. There are seven other orchestras in the provinces. Many performances are free.

Buenos Aires alone has more than 70 conservatories, with an average size of more than 70 students each. Instruction was hurt when Vicente Scaramuzza, the teacher of Miss Argerich, Mr. Gelber and many other leading pianists, died recently. But the 74-year-old Ljerko Spiller, maestro of more than a dozen Argentine concertmasters in Europe, including that of the Berlin Philharmonic, still carries own.

An error has occurred. Please try again later.

You are already subscribed to this email.

Mr. Spiller, a Yugoslav by birth, was part of a second generation of music emigres, most of them Jewish, who came around World War II. He has since turned down many lucrative offers to leave. The Personal Life Is Attractive

''I could go to North America and maybe be very rich,'' he said in his modest apartment. ''But while politics and the economy are not so good here, the personal life is very attractive. Also, I can be useful.''

But demanding musicians in Argentina and abroad say that for all its individual achievements, the country as a whole still falls short of the quality in Europe, the United States and Japan.

''There is no lack of talent,'' says Mr. Spiller, ''but there is a lack of discipline and too much outside interference.'' The lack of discipline is a national character trait, for which little can be done. The interference, on the other hand, is mostly political.

Mr. Spiller tells the typical story of how last year the Youth Orchestra, which he was directing, was invited to play in England. The musicians were eager, but the colonel who was head of such matters rejected the invitation, citing the degradation and promiscuity of English society. Mehta Left During a Revolution

Zubin Mehta, director of the Philharmonic, said he left the country when he was a guest conductor in the 1960's and a revolution broke out.

One result is that the best singers and musicians leave Argentina for more productive climes. It is estimated that there are 50 Argentine professional opera singers in Europe, despite the rich opera seasons in Buenos Aires.

But a number of private music societies are active, particularly the Mozarteum, which under Jeanette Erize, a white-haired socially prominent figure, is sponsoring the Philharmonic tour.

She has aggressively persuaded Argentina's unphilanthropic upper class and industries to help sponsor performances and music scholarships abroad, while raising foreign support, too.

''People have to know that Argentine music exists,'' she said.

We are continually improving the quality of our text archives. Please send feedback, error reports,
and suggestions to archive_feedback@nytimes.com.

A version of this article appears in print on August 30, 1982, on Page C00013 of the National edition with the headline: IN BUENOS AIRES, THE MUSICAL SCENE IS THE RICHEST IN THE THIRD; WORLD. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe